51黑料

It has been a little more than a month since my retirement. Looking back over more than thirty-five years in academia, I find myself reflecting less on what I accomplished than on what I learned. The lesson that stands out most clearly is that a library鈥檚 greatest contribution was never simply the collections we built, the technologies we adopted, or the classes we taught. Its greatest strength emerged through collaboration.

In this regard, I am especially grateful to the faculty at the at NJIT for the many years of collaboration, collegiality, and intellectual exchange that made my work both enjoyable and deeply meaningful. Their willingness to share ideas, discuss teaching and research, and involve the library in the school’s academic life enriched my understanding of architecture and design and continually reminded me why the work of an academic librarian does matter.

The most聽vibrant and active聽libraries are not separate from the聽school’s daily academic life; they are woven into it.聽The strongest partnerships develop through ongoing conversations between faculty and librarians about teaching, research, and the intellectual questions that shape both. Over the years, I came to realize that librarians are most effective not when they simply respond to isolated requests, but when they are invited to become partners in the educational and research process.

Many of the most rewarding collaborations began with a simple conversation about a new studio, an assignment, or an emerging research interest. Those conversations often became the starting point for discovery.

Teaching students how to search catalogs and databases remains important, but the most valuable part of a research consultation often comes before the search itself. It begins with discussing the project, clarifying its objectives, exploring possible directions, and distinguishing between what students think they need and what they ultimately need to understand. Students may not remember every database they learned to search, but they often remember the conversation that changed how they approached a project.

Research begins not with answers, but with better questions.聽For this reason, personal communication between faculty and librarians matters. An email requesting 鈥渁 library session鈥� a day before class rarely provides enough time to understand an assignment鈥檚 goals or develop meaningful instruction. In contrast, conversations held while a course or studio is still being planned allow librarians to contribute in ways that extend well beyond demonstrating databases. Early collaboration enables librarians to identify resources, acquire needed materials, create research guides, develop customized instruction, and anticipate where students are likely to encounter difficulties.

Faculty can strengthen this partnership in several practical ways. Sharing syllabi, assignments, and project descriptions helps librarians understand聽a course鈥檚 intellectual objectives. Discussing ongoing research can help identify newly published books, archival collections, image resources, specialized databases, and other materials that might otherwise go unnoticed. Inviting librarians to participate in curriculum planning, grant projects, or studio discussions recognizes their disciplinary expertise and allows them to contribute more fully to teaching and scholarship.

The librarian鈥檚 role has also expanded considerably. Librarians can help faculty navigate the increasingly complex landscape of scholarly communication, open-access publishing, copyright, digital scholarship, research data, artificial intelligence, and other emerging areas. Most importantly, providing sufficient preparation time enables librarians to develop thoughtful, customized support rather than generic instruction.

At the same time, librarianship in architecture and design differs in important respects from librarianship in STEM disciplines. While many academic library services have evolved around STEM models of research and scholarly communication, faculty and students in architecture, art, and design often rely heavily on visual resources, archival collections, historical documents, material culture, and practice-based scholarship. Studio teaching also creates instructional needs quite different from those of lecture-based courses. Effective library support therefore depends not only on professional expertise but also on continuous dialogue with faculty, whose knowledge of projects, research methods, and learning objectives helps librarians identify the most appropriate resources and approaches.

The relationship between print and digital resources is particularly important in architecture and design education. Architectural reading often involves browsing, moving between text and image, comparing material across pages, and returning to earlier sources. Digital resources have transformed research by greatly expanding access and making searching and discovery faster and easier. Print, however, offers a different kind of encounter: spatial, visual, tactile, and often serendipitous.

An article,听Do Not Throw Away Your Printed Books: A Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Reading Media on Reading Comprehension, published in聽,听acknowledges that digital reading is now an unavoidable part of daily and educational life while cautioning against ignoring evidence of a 鈥渟creen inferiority effect.鈥� The implication is not that libraries should resist digital resources, whose advantages are undeniable, but that the benefits of print should not be discarded in the process. For libraries, the more meaningful question is how each medium can best support different forms of learning, research, and discovery. For architecture and design students in particular, preserving opportunities to encounter both is essential.

Umberto Eco, in his essay聽On Unread Books, reminds us that a library鈥檚 value lies not only in what we already know but also in what remains to be discovered. Louis Kahn expressed a related idea when he imagined a library where carefully chosen books lay open on large tables, inviting spontaneous discussion among students and teachers. His vision reminds us that the library is not merely a repository of information but a place where conversation generates learning. Carefully curated collections, exhibitions, and displays can invite curiosity, but dialogue among faculty, students, and librarians transforms curiosity into understanding.

Artificial intelligence is now changing how we find and engage with information. Digital tools can retrieve articles, summarize texts, and search enormous collections within seconds. Yet they cannot replace the human conversation that helps place information in context, question assumptions, evaluate sources, and connect ideas across disciplines. Nor should the speed of digital discovery cause us to overlook slower and sometimes unexpected forms of discovery: encountering an unfamiliar book on a shelf, comparing images across pages, or following a reference we did not initially know we needed. Discovery still depends on curiosity, critical thinking, and the willingness to ask better questions together.

Retirement has given me the opportunity to reflect on what more than three decades in academic librarianship have taught me. Above all, I have come to appreciate that a library鈥檚 enduring value lies in the relationships it fosters. Collections, technologies, spaces, and services remain indispensable, but they achieve their greatest purpose when they bring people together to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, and explore new possibilities.

I leave this chapter of my professional life with particular gratitude to the faculty at HCAD. Their collaboration over so many years did far more than help me provide better library services; it made my work intellectually rewarding, personally enjoyable, and genuinely meaningful. I learned as much from our conversations as I hope I contributed to their teaching and research. Those relationships remain among the most valuable and lasting rewards of my career.

The strongest library鈥揻aculty partnerships begin with something remarkably simple: a conversation. When faculty and librarians communicate openly, share ideas early, and work together throughout the life of a course, studio, or research project, they create the conditions for discovery, and the conversations that inspire it, to truly flourish.